YEREVAN. – Speaker of the Armenian parliament Galust Sahakyan received Anne Brasseur, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) who is on an official visit to Armenia.
Welcoming Anne Brasseur in the parliament, the Mr. Sahakyan stressed importance of Armenia-Council of Europe cooperation, as well as the CoE support to the process of democratic reforms in our country. The Speaker of the Parliament also touched upon the documents adopted by the Assembly.
Talking about the Armenian Genocide Centennial, he stated it was a crime directed not only against the Armenian people, but also against the mankind. He has expressed hope that ahead of the Armenian Genocide Centenary, the PACE will refer to this historical tragedy and will give an appropriate assessment, Armenian parliament's press office said.
Touching upon the Nagorno-Karabakh problem, Armenian parliament speaker noted that it is one of the important priorities of Armenia's foreign policy, and Armenia sees the solution of the conflict exclusively through peaceful means under the auspice of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs. Galust Sahakyan has proposed to contact directly with Nagorno-Karabakh, irrespective of their status, since the Council of Europe has the similar experience in other conflict zones. At the same time Galust Sahakyan offered Ms Brasseur to observe the parliamentary elections in Nagorno-Karabakh on May 3 on the ground, noting that the elections in Artsakh have been organized and held at high level and in accordance with the international standards long ago.
The PACE President Anne Brasseur has highly assessed the activities of the Armenian delegation to the Assembly and has greatly emphasized parliamentary diplomacy role at the international platforms.
Ms Brasseur has stated that the CoE should promote dialogue between Armenia and Azerbaijan, so that the conflicting sides could listen to each other.
Ann Brasseur has referred to the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, which Armenia has not signed yet. She has also applied to the NA President with the request of creating a Committee on execution of the European Court of Human Rights judgments in the parliament, which will supervise the execution process of the Court’s decisions.
President of the National Assembly Galust Sahakyan and the PACE President Anne Brasseur took part in the tree-planting ceremony in the parliament park.
The PACE President had meetings with the Armenian parliamentary groups, Armenia's d-elegation PACE, heads of Standing Committees on Foreign Relations, on Protection of Human Rights and Public Affairs.